finish my bachelors degree

St. Cloud State University sent me confirmation that I will be done with my Bachelor’s degree this spring. Yay. :/

extraordinarily indifferent when I am finished with this bloody degree. :/

I just registered for (what I hope are) my final round of courses! I am so excited to see the light at the end of the tunnel…

...and tomorrow I’ll be sending in my graduation app.

_{Retail management here I come}

X D

All I can say is “argh!”

Argh to the rising gas prices/cost of living, and the realization that I am not suited for a long, drawn-out career in academia.

In what I hope is my last academic ‘shift,’ I am switching my degree program to BES (elective studies…heh), also through St. Cloud State Univ., that I can finish online (I have ~20 credits left to complete).

Honestly, y’all, every time I have to visit the gas station, which is quite often, my stomach lurches.

I have officially transferred (again)...whoo hoo!

My final declared major, til death do us part, is Biomedical Science.

It isn’t easy to exit the workforce in your late twenties, or thirties, or forties ETC! and dive headfirst into the academic arena, but life thrives off inconvenience. After being laid off twice from a job that I loved (artificial heart valve inspection), I found myself working for a company that I liked overall, but where my supervisor talked circles around me and made me feel like an idiot. I felt that situation was unacceptable. I still believe that education is the best way out of that hole (eg – educated folks still have these types of overlords, but ‘cutting them down to size’ in subtle ways becomes easier ;).

I started attending college in the fall of ‘04 – part time. After trudging through ‘generals’ (for those not in the US – we have a FOUR-year bachelors program – strike ONE for higher education in the US!), I applied to the BioScience program at the U of Minn., and was accepted even before I had completed general Biology. I was very happy. I had grandiose plans for higher ed. in healthcare, and life was almost druggedly good!

Then reality gave me a good pimp-smackin. The U of Minn is expensive, far away (60 mi. – good luck on snowy days!), and they require extra stuff to graduate – to the tune of 16 credits. The difficulty of managing as a U of Minn student did not hit me until I was ‘doing’ it.

So…after spinning my wheels for a YEAR at the U of Minn., I have decided to apply to Biomedical Science at St. Cloud State University. SCSU is a lower-tier school than the U of M, but I know that I will most likely be able to do higher quality work as their student.

After all, the value of education is not in where you go to obtain it, but what you, as an individual, get out of it.